And the World's Greatest Investor Is... By Spencer Jakab
Investors cheered a softer inflation report Thursday, even though it probably was due to an underestimate of missed numbers during the government shutdown . Futures point to a higher open for U.S. stocks. But oil prices, which got a brief reprieve from tension surrounding Venezuela, have resumed their slump
due to fears of significant oversupply.
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The envelope, please.
If one of those new prediction markets
had launched a contract on our "Greatest Investor" poll, the payoff for picking runaway winner Warren Buffett would have been modest. Buffett's observations are so respected that the crowds traveling to hear them in person at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meetings in Omaha could fill Yankee Stadium.
Nailing the trifecta wasn't that hard either: Hedge-fund manager Jim Simons
and mutual fund legend Peter Lynch , in second and third place, respectively, posted returns during their careers that were almost too good to believe.
It also helps that they were active during voters' lifetimes. There aren't even any color photos of Hetty Green, "the witch of Wall Street," or "boy plunger" Jesse Livermore, who brought up the rear. Would it have made a difference if we knew their compound annual returns? Probably not-both Simons and Lynch trounced Buffett in that department.
Your many write-in votes argued that being a truly great investor is as much about wisdom and influence as dollars and cents.
A popular candidate was fund manager and philanthropist Sir John Templeton. When World War II broke out, he bought shares of 104 companies on the New York Stock Exchange trading below one dollar and made money on nearly all of them. Among his famous lines: "Buy at the point of maximum pessimism."
Another write-in favorite was Buffett's mentor, Benjamin Graham, the intellectual father of value investing. Several extremely successful fund managers trace their success to him and David Dodd, his co-author on the classic 1934 tome, "Security Analysis."
That flies in the face of those who think there's no such thing as an investing edge because markets are basically efficient. Buffett wrote an influential article on the book's 50th anniversary, " The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville , " pointing out why their success was no coincidence.
Charlie Munger , Buffett's late business partner, also got several mentions, and not just because he was there for much of the ride at Berkshire Hathaway. Munger was a font of wisdom and is credited with steering Buffett in an even more profitable direction than Graham's pure-value approach. Berkshire began investing in wonderful businesses at fair prices instead of just fair businesses at wonderful prices, leading it to gems like Coca-Cola and Apple.
Jack Bogle , the founder of Vanguard Group and the father of the index mutual fund, got several nods. He arguably has saved ordinary investors trillions of dollars.
And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the most popular write-in candidate, even if most of you meant it as a joke: Nancy Pelosi. The House Minority Leader, along with many fellow members of Congress, is a fabulous trader .
What's their secret? Maybe they've all read "Security Analysis" cover-to-cover.
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Stocks I'm Watching
FedEx : The delivery company posted better-than-projected quarterly results , boosted by higher U.S. package shipments. It raised the lower end of its annual guidance. However, shares dropped about 1.5% in premarket trading.
Nike : The sportswear company expects sales to decline
this quarter, due to continued weakness in China. Its gross margin decreased last quarter as tariffs pushed up product costs. The stock fell 10% premarket.
Oracle : TikTok parent Bytedance has formalized agreements to form a new U.S. joint venture
that will be 50% held by a consortium of new investors, including Oracle. Shares in Oracle jumped 5.5% before the bell.
KB Home : The homebuilder delivered fewer homes and profit fell last quarter, weighed down by the stagnant housing market . Shares dropped 5% in off-hours trading.
Scholastic : The publishing house increased its profi t as book fairs in the back-to-school season buoyed quarterly revenue. Shares fell 1% offhours, however.
One Big Chart
Insurance Rates Should Fall Next Year, But Not Much
The U.S. got lucky during hurricane season. That could help lower insurance costs next year, but don't bet on too much .
What I'm Reading The Bank of Japan raised rates to the highest level in 30 years, another step back from the world's longest experiment with ultra-expansionary monetary policy. Here's why you should care. ( WSJ ) OpenAI wants to raise as much as $100 billion, seeking to fund ambitious growth plans in a market that has cooled recently on the artificial-intelligence boom. Such a deal would value the company at around $830 billion. ( WSJ ) The Trump family business empire is growing. We mapped out 268 pieces of It. ( WSJ ) We let AI run a vending machine. It stocked a live fish and a PlayStation (video). ( WSJ ) Will prediction markets make the stock market obsolete? ( Barron's ) Today in Markets History
On this day in 1927, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 200 for the first time. It had taken the Dow nearly 22 years to double.
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About Me
Business and finance have fascinated me for a long time. Before writing this newsletter, I edited The Wall Street Journal's Heard on the Street team for a decade, wrote two investment books and managed a team of stock analysts at a global investment bank.
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This article is a text version of a Wall Street Journal newsletter published earlier today.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 19, 2025 06:39 ET (11:39 GMT)
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